Hasina for talks on border row

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA, MAY 3. The Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, whose proposed visit to India in May second week has reportedly been dropped, expressed the hope that border disputes between the two countries would be resolved through discussions.

Addressing a May Day rally in Chittagong, she referred to the recent border skirmishes and said it was because of her Awami League Government that ``we have been able to restore peace along our borders''.

On the criticism of her opponent, the former Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, that she had failed to protect the country's sovereignty from ``Indian aggression'', Hasina claimed her Government had been successful in settling disputes along the 145-km border with India and Myanmar. Only 6.5 km of border with India remained unsettled. Measures had already been taken to resolve the remaining disputes through separate task forces formed under the Mujib-Indira border accord, she said.

The Opposition, led by Begum Zia, launched a countrywide pre-poll campaign against the Government over the border clash terming the Awami League as ``subservient to India''.

Hasina posed a counter-charge, asking Khaleda why her late husband, Zia-ur-Rahman, who was the country's President for many years, failed to solve the border issues with India.

On Hasina's cancelled visit, the Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdus Samad Azad, told a press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here last night, ``she (the Prime Minister) will not be able to visit New Delhi either on way to London or on way back home''. This was because of domestic compulsions. The visit might take place at mutual convenience. ``Both sides are interested in receiving each other,'' Mr. Azad said.

He said the Government had accepted India's invitation and would soon send a delegation to New Delhi to discuss border problems. On Wednesday, Mr. Azad told the Indian High Commissioner, Mr. Moni Lal Tripathy, during a meeting that border problems should be resolved swiftly through the implementation of the accord in the interest of good relations.

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